So quick bright things come to confusion
by JennyWren
Summary: What will happen if Erik agrees to teach Meg as well? EM, EC or maybe both? And what does Raoul say to all this?
1. Two plans

So quick bright things come to confusion 

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters from "The Phantom of the Opera". They belong to Gaston Leroux/ Andrew Lloyd Webber. The title is a quotation from "A Midsummer night´s dream" (William Shakespeare).

**1) Two plans**

Erik stared at the letter in his hand. It had already waited for him on his usual seat in Box Five. At first he had been indignant: _He _was the one to send letters, not the other way round! But then he had been overcome by curiosity and had ripped it open with almost child-like pleasure.

Now he was a little disappointed. Well, he hadn´t exactly expected a love letter, but this…! His eyes fixed once more on the important lines: _I am delighted to watch Christine´s progress in singing. She must be very grateful for having such a great teacher._ ´Oh yes!´, Erik thought bitterly. ´And she´s showing her gratitude by dating another man!´ Angrily he kicked against the balustrade, but this only added pain in his foot to the pain in his heart.

_Although my daughter Meg´s strength is clearly dancing, I´d like her to improve her singing as well. So I ask you whether it would be possible for you to teach her if you´re not too busy._ He shook his head. Of course he was busy! The managers were still much too rebellious for his taste, he had over heard two new chorus girls talking about him as the ´Opera Host´ yesterday, and instead of giving them the shock of their lives he spent all his time following Christine, watching what she thought were secret meetings with her beloved Vicomte. But what could he do about it?

The idea came to his mind in an instant. He would teach Meg. Maybe the fact that he had another student, especially one who was female and pretty, would make Christine think about where her priorities lay. It simply couldn´t go on like this: In every lesson he gave her she was so sweet and friendly, but as soon as the Vicomte was around her it seemed that her Angel of Music didn´t exist anymore.

The longer Erik thought about it the more frustrated he became. Who did this girl mean she was: the centre of the world? Unfortunately he had to realise that she was indeed the centre of his world, and he wanted to have her for himself. With a sigh he put a tick in the ´yes´ square on the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. Perhaps jealousy was the right way…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"But mum! I don´t want to take singing lessons!", Meg protested, stamping her foot. She didn´t even like singing that much – she only needed it because chorus girls had to sing. Of course her mother didn´t know that she sometimes just opened and closed her mouth without actually producing a sound. She preferred leaving that to Christine and others, who in turn didn´t have the slightest idea what to do with their arms and legs most of the time.

"Wait till you hear who will teach you." Her mother was almost ecstatic, judging by her usual behaviour. For a second Meg even thought she had seen her smile, but dismissed it as a trick of the light. "Who? This terrible man with the bald head and the yellowish teeth who teaches Ariane and Monique?" The girl shuddered. She didn´t even want to think about what lessons with that man might include.

"No, it´s the Opera Ghost!" Meg frowned. "Christine´s Opera Ghost?" Mme.Giry gave her a stern look before asking: "How many ghosts do you think this opera has? He´ll teach you, and you´ll be a perfect singer before you can say ´Opéra Populaire´. Probably you´ll even become better than Christine.".

Better than Christine…! This sounded absolutely great to Meg. She had never envied Christine in the first months at the opera, but that had been before Meg had seen Raoul this one evening. Of course Petite Mademoiselle ´Raoul and I were childhood friends´ had snatched him away from her. Why couldn´t Christine just take the Opera Ghost?

Suddenly Meg smiled. If she took lessons with him, acting as if she was interested in more than just his music, Christine would surely realise that her feelings for the man were more than friendship. Then she would leave Raoul, and the poor boy would need a person to make him forget his pain.

"All right, mum!", she said with a fake sigh. "If you insist on it…!" Perhaps jealousy was the right way…


	2. Guess what!

**2) Guess what!**

Meg nearly missed Christine at the ballet class the next morning. Most of the night she had had very pleasant dreams involving Raoul and her. For some strange reason Christine hadn´t appeared in one of them. Maybe that had made them so pleasant.

"Hey Meg!" Christine waved. Sometimes she really had the impression that her friend needed glasses. "Oh, it´s you!", Meg said, sitting down next to her on the floor. Christine beamed at her. "Guess what!" "What?" "Raoul invited me for dinner tonight." "Oh, great!" Meg didn´t sound too enthusiastic. ´That´s only the 37th time this month.´, she added in her mind.

Then she remembered that she was the one with the exciting news today. She grinned. "Guess what!" "What?" "Guess who´ll take singing lessons with the same teacher as you!" Suddenly Christine stopped smiling. She whispered: "Carlotta?". Meg shook her head. "M.Piangi?" "No!" "Monique?" "No!" "Your mother?" "No!" "M.Fir-?" "No, it´s me!"

Christine looked at her in shock. "You?" This was impossible. Erik had told her she would always remain his only student. But then, Erik had also told her he was an angel sent by her father… Anyway, she didn´t like the thought. He was _her _teacher. Would he also take Meg to his underground house and sing for her? Would her make her an own dummy and let her sleep in Christine´s bed? Her eyes filled with tears. It was simply not fair!

Meg enjoyed her friend´s reaction. All she had to do now was take a few lessons, make some occasional comments on them and watch Christine suffer.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"Guess what!" Somehow Christine didn´t sound as cheerful as the first time she had said it. "What?" "Meg´ll have singing lessons with Erik, too." Raoul looked at her, puzzled. "Who on earth is Erik?", he asked. "The Angel of Music, the Phantom of the Opera, Opera Ghost – he has many names, you know.", she explained. "But you´re calling him with his first name?" "Well, he doesn´t _have _a last name…"

"And he´ll teach Meg?", Raoul wanted to know. "Yes, isn´t it unfair? He´s my Angel of Music! I mean, did Meg´s father tell her these stories when she was younger? No! It was me who…" He listened to her complaints about the injustices of the world for a couple of minutes before saying: "But that´s the best thing that could have happened to us!".

She was starting to become annoyed with him; she hated being interrupted. "What do you mean?" His chest swelling with pride about his idea (though Christine also noticed a swelling of his belly because of the 37 dinners they had had this month) he said: "When he has another student he can stalk her instead of you.".

Raoul sighed deeply. "I feel like he´s watching us in this very moment." "That´s because he _is _watching us in this very moment.", Christine said matter-of-factly. She pointed at a large pot plant in the corner of the room, behind which Erik was standing. Only the lower half of his body was hidden behind the leaves and twigs.

"Oh! This explains a lot.", Raoul remarked. Christine pulled the blanket away from their bodies. "Can we continue now what we did before I started talking about Meg?", she asked, letting a hand glide down his chest. "Sure, but … but I can´t do it as long as he´s looking at us.", he answered hastily, before Christine´s hand reached its destination, making him unable to utter coherent sentences.

Christine rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. If Raoul had known how many times he had been perfectly capable of ´doing it´ with him watching them … ! "Erik?", she called over her shoulder. "Could you please…?" Erik turned around. "Better now?", she asked Raoul. He nodded.


	3. The hat

**3) The hat**

Erik had seen and heard many horrible things in his life, probably much more than the average human being. He had been sure nothing could surprise or scare him in the slightest. But at this moment he was in a state of advanced shock. "Well, this was … erm … very nice, Meg!", he stammered. ´You have to be friendly to her.´, he told himself. ´Otherwise she´ll leave before you have even started your plan.´

Meg examined him suspiciously. "How can you know that? You had your fingers in your ears all the time!" "That was only because …" He searched for an excuse, but his brain was still damaged from having listened to what she euphemistically called ´singing´. Meg let herself fall on a chair. "Was it that bad?", she wanted to know. For a second he thought about whether ´yes´ would be such a terribly impolite answer.

"Well, it´s your first lesson, and I´m sure we can improve your singing when we work on it.", he said. "But we have done enough for today. You must be very exhausted." "We begun 10 minutes ago …", she reminded him, wondering whether he wanted to get rid of her. "Really?" He tried to sound surprised. "It seemed to be so much longer… Unfortunately there is this extremely important business which cannot wait. We´ll have our next lesson …" "Tomorrow?", Meg suggested. "N… all right!", Erik agreed.

He stood up and was on the way to the door when he realised that something was missing. "Do you see my fedora anywhere?" The girl shrugged. "I took it off when I entered the room and lay it on …" He stared at her. "Could it be possible that you´re sitting on my hat?", he asked through gritted teeth. Blushing deeply Meg pulled it out from under her and handed it to Erik. It didn´t exactly resemble a hat anymore. "I´m sorry!", she muttered.

Erik´s hand had automatically seized his Punjab lasso, but he managed to pull himself together. How was he supposed to make Christine jealous when he killed his other student? "It … it wasn´t your fault. Next time I´ll put it somewhere else." Probably on top of the wardrobe!

He left the room, cursing his great idea. If Meg kept singing like that he wouldn´t be able to stand more than a few lessons before going insane. And he had suspected Carlotta of having the worst voice in Paris! Longingly he thought of his angelic Christine. Listening to her filled his heart with love and – well, other desires, in contrast to Meg, who caused him to wish he would become deaf. But he had to endure her as long as Christine needed to discover her true feelings. He only hoped she´d hurry up a little.

After then end of the lesson Meg stayed in the small room with the piano her mother had found for them. So far nothing remotely interesting had happened. The closest she had come to him had been the time when she had squeezed his hat. She needed something much better to tell Christine, something … provocative. A plan formed in her head. After all, the Opera Ghost was just a man.


	4. Together

**4) Together**

Christine couldn´t help laughing. "You sung for 10 minutes, then he made you stop?" She was relieved. So there was nothing to worry about. She had known that Meg´s voice couldn´t compete with her own, and now Erik seemed to know it, too. Besides, there was the fact that she had a special place in his heart, which Meg hadn´t. Or had she?

"But you didn´t … do anything else?", she asked slowly. "No.", Meg replied shortly. From the first moment she had been certain that honesty was the only way to handle the conversations with Christine. She simply couldn´t be sure what the Phantom told her, and losing Christine´s trust was the last thing she could afford.

"Good." Christine smiled in such a self-satisfied way that Meg felt the overwhelming urge to hit her on the head with the ballet shoes she held in her hand. Breathing deeply to stay calm she forced herself to think about something else. Tomorrow she would have a real sensation to tell her.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

One last time Meg looked around. It was perfect: The few candle plunged the room into a very cosy semi-darkness. Red wine and two glasses stood on the table. She had even covered the extraordinarily ugly sofa with a scarlet blanket. Everything smelled of seduction.

The only problem was that Erik didn´t seem to notice it. He was aware of the changes, but didn´t comment on them. Perhaps the girl expected someone else after the lesson. So he just said: "You won´t be able to read the music with so little light. Or is this your way of telling me that you´ve learned today´s song by heart?". Meg nodded, hoping she could remember the lyrics. "Good. Let´s begin!"

Erik sat down on the piano stool, and Meg placed herself next to the piano, so that he could see her. During the song she tried her best to attract his attention by re-arranging her long blonde hair and moving certain parts of her body more often than necessary. But he stared so attentively at his sheets of music that he wouldn´t have seen her if she had been naked. The girl sighed inwardly. This would be more difficult than she had thought.

She finished the song with determination - and a rather unmelodic squealing sound, which made Erik jump. At last he looked at her. Meg seized her chance. "My throat´s all dry. I´ll have to drink something." She went to the table, filled both glasses and carried them over to the piano. Maybe alcohol would make him loosen up a little.

"Thank you.", he said, taking a sip of wine. This girl was indeed very friendly. Meg emptied her glass in one big gulp and asked: "Do you like my dress?". "Oh, it´s rather …" His jaw dropped as he looked at it properly for the first time, noticing that it only covered half the usual amount of skin. He felt his cheeks flush as he saw parts of the female body he had never seen that close before.

Meg chuckled. "I take that as a ´yes´." She settled down on his lap and started unbuttoning his shirt. "What are you doing there?", Erik asked in shock. She laughed. "Well, I´d say I´m undressing you, but if you have a better interpretation…" Before he had the chance to protest against it she pressed her lips against his. Instantly Erik pushed her away from him.

She recovered quickly from her first rejection in her life. Perhaps she just had to try harder. "Oh, come on!", she whispered seductively. "I know you´ll like it." This time her hands made their way directly to his trousers.

Erik felt his body react rather obviously. "But I don´t … ", he muttered. He had always thought his first time to be more romantic – and with Christine. "You don´t know what to do?", Meg finished. "Don´t worry! It´s enough that I know it." With these words she moved his hands up his thighs. He shook his head frantically. "You don´t want Christine to know it? She´ll never find out …" Well, unless she´d accidentally let it slip tomorrow.

"I don´t … love you!", he finally managed to say. "Oh, you thought this was about love?", Meg asked. "Honestly it isn´t even about lust. I´m just doing it because Christine should realise that she wants to be with you and leave Raoul, so that I can have him." Erik looked at her in disbelief. "I have exactly the same plan!" After a second her added: "Well, except for the part with ´having the Vicomte´. I don´t want him."

Meg giggled. "Then I could have saved myself all this? And I worked so hard! I even practiced several flirt strategies with one of my dolls." "How did it react?", Erik asked, grinning. "More passionately than you, that much is certain!" They looked deep into each other´s eyes – and burst into laughter. The whole situation was entirely absurd.

The girl was the first one to get a grip on herself. "So I guess that our plans have become one.", she stated. "Together we´ll make Christine forget Raoul and come to you. Do you agree?" "Yes, but … could you … take your hands off me now?" "Sorry!", she said. Quickly she removed them from his thighs and offered him the right one to shake. "Partners?" "Partners!", Erik agreed.


	5. Bad news

**5) Bad news**

Spreading a rumour was ridiculously easy at a place full of chatting girls like the opera. Nobody could say who had actually started it, but everyone seemed to know a few details, and by the time Meg arrived the gossip had reached an almost dangerous level. With a contented smile she noticed the sudden silence as she entered the chorus girls´ dressing room.

Ariane put into words what they all wanted to know: "Do you really have an affair with the Opera Host?". "It´s the Opera _Ghost_. But the rest is true." This was the signal for the others to start, too. "How can you have an affair with a ghost?" "Has he ever used his lasso on you?" "Will he make you the lead singer of the opera?" "I heard his house has a torture chamber. Have you … ?" Meg answered the questions as well as she could, taking great pleasure in all the attention. It was a pity that Christine wasn´t here yet.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"Erik and you are … ?" "…a couple, yes!" Meg enjoyed the puzzled expression on Christine´s face. She couldn´t have been more confused if she had caught Raoul and Carlotta snogging in the broom cupboard. "But how … ?" "Well, you know how quickly these things can happen.", Meg said, shrugging. "It´s like with Raoul and you. I mean, first you hadn´t seen each other for years, and the next moment you were engaged!"

Christine had only half listened. Her mind had come up with some very vivid pictures, and she was in desperate need of a confirmation that they didn´t correspond to reality. "But you haven´t … well … ?" She couldn´t bring herself to say it. "… slept with each other?", Meg finished pleasantly, wondering whether her friend would ever again be able to utter a complete sentence. "Of course we have!"

She heard a sharp intake of breath from Christine, but it only made her continue more cheerfully. This was the part she had really been looking forward to. Erik and she had spent quite a while talking about the details to be certain they wouldn´t contradict each other. "Erik is such a great lover. He knows how to make a woman happy.", she continued, watching her victim closely.

Christine felt as if she had been hit on the head with a ballet shoe. Of course she had _never ever _thought about making love to Erik, but if she had, she would have imagined his first time to be with her. She would have imagined his long, sensual fingers to glide over her skin, their mouths to meet in kisses that seemed to last forever and her body yearning for him as he finally … but being the good girl she was she had never thought about such things.

She looked so sad that Meg actually pitied her for a moment. Then she reminded herself that everything only was for their good. Christine couldn´t stand it any longer. She ran to her dressing room. She had to know. Meg chose another way, making sure that she would be with Erik first to fill him in on her part of the conversation.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"Erik? I need to talk to you. Now!", Christine called as soon as the had closed the door. It took some time till he answered: "I´m rather busy at the moment. What´s the problem?". His voice echoed through the room, but her didn´t appear. Meg and he had agreed that he wouldn´t show up in person. The reason was quite simple: He would not be able to watch Christine suffer. He would tell her everything, just to make her smile again. However, it was good that Meg stood next to him. She had to grip the back of his shirt to keep him from going to Christine.

"Is it true what they say about Meg and you?" "Of course.", he replied calmly. She sank down on a chair as she went on, dreading the answer: "And you really … erm … ?". Having this conversation for the second time Meg had an idea what she meant and could interpret the stuttering for Erik. "Oh yes!", he said dreamily. "I´d never have thought my first time could be that fantastic. Well, I knew ballet dancers have to be supple, but …" His voice trailed off delicately, and Meg clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling. Erik was a prefect actor.

He decided to give Christine one final blow. "Anyway, we´ll have a lesson with the two of you tomorrow evening. You can learn a lot from Meg. She´s such a talented singer." "If you say so …", Christine muttered and left the room without another word.

The two persons behind the mirror looked at each other. "Was that too cruel?", Erik asked when Christine was well out of earshot. "There is no other way.", Meg said. "It has to work." "It will work.", Erik assured her.


	6. Two hearts

**6: Two hearts?**

"You won´t believe what I heard today!", Christine told Raoul, who had picked her up from the opera in a terrible state. She had been sobbing so hard that even Carlotta had reluctantly offered her a handkerchief. Well, it had fallen to the floor first, but still ...

Raoul looked at her suspiciously. Hopefully it was nothing about him secretly using her face cream. Or about the true reason why he was not allowed to enter the chorus girls´ dressing room. Or about Carlotta and him in the broom cupboard. At the mere thought he broke out in a sweat. A tremendously boring performance and lots of wine were a dangerous combination.

"Hey! You´re not listening to me!", Christine complained, nudging him in the ribs. He blinked nervously. "Sorry, love! What is it you were saying?" "Erik and Meg are a couple.", she muttered miserably. "How nice!", Raoul commented automatically. "Nice?", Christine repeated. "Honestly, you´re as sensitive as a log! Do you have any idea what this means to me?" "What? Do they want you to be a bridesmaid at their wedding?" He chuckled. "Can you image that: the Phantom in his lovely Red Death outfit and Meg in her best tutu?"

Christine threw a pillow at his head. "Sometimes you´re incredibly childish." "Oh, and Little Lotte wants to do what the adults do?" Longingly Raoul reached for her, but she jumped out of the bed and turned around to leave. "Where are you going?", he asked disappointedly. One night in which they could have been certain of being alone, and now…!

"To the kitchen!", she replied. "Till you´re able to think with your _head_ again!" "Could you bring some of the hazelnut biscuits with you when you return?" Christine growled. "Men!"

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

If Christine had known how next day´s singing lesson would be, she´d have preferred drowning in Erik´s lake. At least that wouldn´t have been as painful as watching Meg and him flirting. "Oh Erik, I love the way you play the piano." "And I love the way you sing to it." "I love the way the mask underlines the beauty of your face." "And I love the way the pink of your dress brings out the blond of your hair." "But most of all I love you, Erik." "I love you , too, Meg." Christine almost had to vomit, but neither of them seemed to notice.

She felt very superfluous, mainly because Meg sat on Erik´s lap while he played. "Two lovers, united for eternity. Two hearts, beating in the rhythm of love.", the two at the piano sang passionately. "Hey, you missed your line!", Meg called over her shoulder. Christine sighed and started: "One girl, alone for eternity. One heart, broken to pieces.". Erik and Meg grinned at her and began to kiss. Seeing that the girl practically fled from the room.

They broke apart at once. Meg wiped her mouth. "Kissing you isn´t exactly a pleasure, Erik." He only smiled. "Having to sing your song isn´t exactly a pleasure either. ´Two hearts, beating in the rhythm of love´?" He shuddered. "But you couldn´t come up with something simple and expressive! I mean", she picked up a sheet, " ´When will the blood begin to race, the sleeping bud burst into bloom?´ - Nobody can understand what that is about!"

The arising argument was interrupted by Christine´s return. She looked very determined. "Erik, can I talk to you for a moment?", she asked. "Of course. We´re finished anyway. Meg, my love, you may go." The girl winked at Erik and left. She would keep her fingers crossed.


	7. A new player

**Author´s note: **Three days without a new chapter – I´m sorry. But I had to write a one-shot in between to satisfy my need for seriousness…

**7) A new player **

"How can I help you?" Erik sounded perfectly friendly, as if they had never been more than teacher and student. "You seemed to have a problem with the rhythm in the second line – is it that?" "No, it´s not the singing. It´s …" Christine sighed. Never in her life had she felt so awkward. Well, there had been this one performance when she had accidentally knocked over Carlotta on stage, who in turn had made half of the chorus girls fall down. It had ended with about ten people shouting at her.

"Meg and you seem to be very happy together.", she said uneasily. "Meg´s a wonderful woman. She loves me … and she´s not afraid of showing it." "I noticed.", Christine commented dryly. She also noticed that the conversation wasn´t exactly going into the right direction. She couldn´t talk about her relationship to Erik without sounding jealous. But then, she _was _jealous…

"Have you ever thought about the possibility that something could have happened between us?", she asked, approaching the topic _very_ slowly. He leant back, obviously enjoying himself. "You didn´t want me.", he reminded her. "You always said you loved the Vicomte." "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my feelings for you are stronger than I knew myself." Shyly she seized his hand.

´Yes! It worked!´, Erik cheered inwardly. He had to remind himself forcefully of Meg. Her part of the plan was not finished yet. "And what if you change your mind again tomorrow? How can I be certain of you?" "Tell me what I have to do to make you believe me!", Christine begged him, squeezing his hand so tightly that he gave a yelp of pain and pulled it away from her.

"There is still the Vicomte. If you can make him leave you and go to another girl, let´s say … Meg, I´ll believe you.", Erik said at once. Christine looked at him in surprise. "But Meg´s with you." Smiling broadly he explained how Meg and he had worked together to achieve their goals. He didn´t miss any of the details, and when he stopped tears of laughter were running down Christine´s face. "So you want me to get rid of Raoul. Will you help me?" Erik was delighted. "Trampling on the Vicomte´s feelings? Where do I have to sign?"

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

This time Raoul wanted to be sure right from the start. Okay, he hadn´t thought about it till they were both undressed, but now he asked: "Christine, are you certain you don´t want to tell me any important things today? You know, I would be glad if we were not interrupted by your need to talk.".

´What a great introduction!´, she thought cheerfully. "Well, actually there is one thing: Erik is rather annoyed by watching us making love.." Raoul´s spirit rose. Maybe that would finally come to an end. Christine went on: "… so I invited him to join us this time.". He chuckled. "Very funny. I almost believed –" His eyes widened in shock as Erik entered the room.

He beamed at the two in the bed. "Good evening! Am I too late?" With a melodramatic little cry Raoul pulled the blanket over his bare chest. Ignoring it Christine replied: "Of course not! You´re just in time for the main course.". Erik started unbuttoning his shirt. That was too much for Raoul. Wrapping the blanket around him he left the room at top speed.

"How was I?", Erik wanted to know, sitting down on Raoul´s abandoned place. "Absolutely fantastic!" They looked into each other eyes. "Perhaps I should go now and let you sleep.", he said not very convincingly. "But Raoul has taken the blanket with him, and I can´t sleep without it." It was only then that Erik realised that he was sitting on a bed next to a naked woman. He swallowed hard. "So you think I should stay?"


	8. Changes

**8) Changes**

After quickly putting on a dressing gown in the bathroom Raoul went down to the kitchen. Silently he was cursing himself. It had been him who had wanted them to try more things out. But of course he had never imagined Erik could take part in their love life. Besides, Raoul was certain he had heard her say that Erik and Meg were a couple. Meg! He had always found her cute, and maybe, if Christine had turned him down, he might have invited _her _for dinner instead. He couldn´t understand why she concerned herself with this man.

When he entered the kitchen he was surprised to see the object of his thoughts sitting at the table, drinking a cup of tea. "Hello Raoul! Do you want some tea?", she said brightly, as if being in her best friend´s house in the middle of the night was perfectly normal. "Yes, please!", Raoul answered automatically, handing her a cup. He settled down and watched her pour tea into it before asking: "What are you doing here?".

"Probably the same thing you do: waiting. Biscuits?" She offered him a plate, but for the first time in his life Raoul didn´t feel like eating. "You mean he just brought you along and left you in the cloakroom like an umbrella? How can he do this to a woman like you?"

The conversation couldn´t have been better if Meg had written the script for it herself. All Raoul needed now was a slight push into the right direction and he would be hers. "Actually I heard it was Christine´s idea, although I can´t understand her. Okay, Erik is a nice man, but compared to you…" She glanced at him admiringly. After giving him a second´s time to fall for her flattery she leant forward and kissed him on the lips. Patience was a virtue Meg always had certain problems with.

Raoul returned the kiss almost instantly. Briefly he thought of Christine, but he pushed her picture angrily to the back of his mind. He didn´t need a woman who wanted a threesome with his archrival. Meg broke the kiss, smiling triumphantly. "So what do we do now?", she asked a little breathlessly. "Let´s go and tell Christine and Erik that we don´t want them anymore, that we´ve found someone else.", he suggested boldly.

"All right!" She agreed only too willingly. They went upstairs. As they reached the bedroom door Meg seized Raoul´s sleeve to keep him from knocking. "Sh!", she hissed. Now he heard the rather unmistakable sounds as well. "Perhaps we should better come back a bit later. But what can we do in the meantime?", he wanted to know. Without a word of explanation Meg fetched a basket she had brought with her from the kitchen. Raoul grinned. "Oh, what have you got in your basket, little girl?" He laughed as he saw red wine and candles. She joined in the laughter. "But grandmother, what a large mouth you´ve got!" Raoul looked at her hungrily. "The better to kiss you with!"

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

All four people met the next morning at the breakfast table. "Did everyone have an enjoyable night?", Christine asked. They all nodded. "So I think it´s best if Meg stays here and I go with Erik.", she went on. The others murmured their agreement. "But we should meet soon!", Meg threw in. "Oh yes!" Christine nodded vigorously. "Erik, you know that I love you, but I doubt your coffin is as comfortable as the bed here."

Meg smiled wickedly. "Maybe we should swap partners next time." Raoul tried to catch Christine´s eye, but it was Erik who spoke first: "Good idea! I knew I´d get my night with the Vicomte…". The three others laughed at the horrified expression on Raoul´s face. "Only joking!", they called in unisono. For a moment Raoul looked hurt, then a smile lit up his face. "What a pity!", he said, grabbing Erik´s hand. Finally he thought he had understood the rules of the game they were playing.

**The End**

**Author´s note: **Okay, now it´s over. I had great fun writing this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Thank you very much for your support!


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